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Most Would-Be Successors Assail Mayor on Diversity

On Tuesday, at a forum on diversity in city hiring, from left, Tom Allon, Bill de Blasio, John C. Liu, Christine C. Quinn, Scott M. Stringer and William C. Thompson Jr.Credit
Ozier Muhammad/The New York Times

Ms. Quinn, a likely candidate, described the city’s record of giving contracts to minority- and women-owned businesses as “clearly not satisfactory.” But while other candidates criticized the mayor for a lack of diversity in his administration and suggested that his officials saw minority- and women-owned firms as unqualified, Ms. Quinn steered clear of invective, focusing instead on specific changes she said she would make and trying to accentuate the positive.

“Whoever the next mayor is, we have tremendous potential to get an A-plus” on diversity issues, she said at one point. “I don’t think there are a lot of problems out there that New Yorkers can’t come together and solve.”

The forum, organized by the newspaper City and State, offered a clear preview of how the mayoral field will divide in the coming months. Mr. de Blasio, Mr. Thompson, Mr. Liu and Mr. Stringer attacked the policies of Mr. Bloomberg. Ms. Quinn and, to a lesser extent, a sixth candidate, Tom Allon — who is the president of City and State’s parent company, Manhattan Media — promised to build on them.

Mr. de Blasio said City Hall was “not serious” about diversifying the city’s contractors and condemned the mayor for having an administration that he said did not look “like New York City.”

He also suggested that city officials were biased against minority- and women-owned firms.

Describing what he said was a recent conversation with a city official, he said: “It shocked me to hear, ‘Wow, we would love to do that, if only we could find a qualified firm.’ I remember when I was in City Hall hearing that kind of discussion 20 years ago and thinking it was outdated then.”

Ms. Quinn suggested that City Hall should have a chief diversity officer and, in a proposal announced by her office shortly before the forum began, said that agencies should have to report regularly to the mayor on their progress toward diversity goals.

Of the five panelists, only Mr. Thompson and Mr. Allon have officially declared their intention to run for mayor. Ms. Quinn and Mr. de Blasio, in interviews, have carefully avoided describing themselves as candidates. But not being a declared candidate did not constrain Mr. Stringer, who declared that “during my transition,” diversity would be a priority.

Subsequently, in a spurt of enthusiasm, he offered Mr. Thompson — the only African-American on the panel — the job of chief diversity officer in his administration.

“My chief diversity officer — if you want it, it’s yours,” he said. The offer seemed to relate, in part, to Mr. Thompson’s role as chairman of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s task force on minority- and women-owned firms. But, when the crowd broke into startled laughter, Mr. Stringer added hastily that diversity officer was not the only role he could envision for Mr. Thompson.

“Anything you want is yours!” he promised.

Mr. Thompson did not shy away from highlighting the irony in Mr. Stringer’s offer.

“Scott, I am not going to offer you the position of chief diversity officer,” he responded. “Another position perhaps, but not that one.”

Mr. Bloomberg’s office, girding for what is likely to be a year of being used for target practice, responded swiftly to the criticism.

“Our successful record helping M.W.B.E. firms and increasing diversity is based on results, not rhetoric,” a mayoral spokeswoman, Julie Wood, said in a statement. “Since 2005, minority- and women-owned businesses have gotten more than $2.7 billion of city work, including more than $500 million in fiscal year 2011.”

A version of this article appears in print on June 13, 2012, on page A23 of the New York edition with the headline: Most Would-Be Successors Assail Mayor on Diversity. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe